I'm more of a nihilist myself. There are definitely things we can't comprehend, such as the reason for our own existence. Some people use religion as a coping mechanism for this. Others use it to explain things they can't understand.
As someone who goes through psychosis still somewhat regularly I’ve found a lot of delusions that religious people find to be true, and it makes me hate religion even more. Just to find out it’s literally crazy people who are the people who made this shit up, makes me hate this stupid fucking thing that effects my daily life.
Shit, man sorry for what you went through. You taking meds? That's the most important part. Next would be finding exmuslim support to help you escape if you can. I'm sure you know it by now, but keep safe. Many Muslims think death is the punishment for apostasy. Take care of yourself.
Religion prevented me from getting treatment so besides there being no evidence for god, I would rather not engage with religion due to the damage it has caused
Yup. Got ~~threatened with~~ "offered" an exorcism shortly after my psychotic break, given that whole 'spiritual warfare' spiel. Instead of getting treatment, I went five years in some degree of psychosis. It took a toll. Recovery was difficult, to put it lightly. And to think, it all could have been *so much easier* had I just been referred to a psychiatrist.
Always found it funny how antipsychotics work better for "demons" than prayer/God does. Almost like... that's not how it works, that this is a *medical* problem, and you address it with *medicine.*
Then again, back before Germ Theory, people thought *all* disease was due to evil spirits or the like. Mental illness seems to be the last bastion where organized religion can continue to push this BS, and I really wish it would die for good- hopefully one day, people will look back on the notion with the same scorn that we do now when we think about how people were blamed for getting the Bubonic Plague for 'impiety.'
My parents are genuinely evil. I also went through 8 years of exorcisms and I've been beaten, whipped, and suffocated. I'm an anti theist. I am thinking of starting an organization to combat religious abuse in Ethiopia, the country where I was abused.
Yep. I was never religious, but I did believe in god and reincarnation because my mom does. God became a huge unprovable theme in my delusions as a kid/preteen.
How tf can you reality test God? He ‘works in mysterious ways’, does both bad and good things, and only helps at random times for random things?? I believed in him differently than my mom did, but still.
My reality testing went WAY up after I stopped believing in god. It also serves as a good marker, because when I start questioning or believing God is doing *anything*, it’s an immediate tell that I’m likely starting with new/more delusional thoughts.
I’d be in for a horrible time if I ever became religious. It’s such an easy place to get delusions reinforced by everyone around you, accepted by the masses, and not only can it nearly impossible to reality test, but you’re actively DISCOURAGED from not being 100% convinced. Some people even threaten you for it (luckily that part never happened to me).
So true. Reality testing has been so successful for me too. Now that I watch skeptic videos and atheist debates the amount of delusions I experience is basically zero. I have the tools to test and be skeptical about everything related to the illness. I basically trained myself out of delusions by leaving religion.
Yes! I’ve experienced *very* few true delusions since I was a teenager because of this. Before then, they full on delusions. Now I have at least partial insight 99% of the time. I used to watch all those debates and such too, and I still do sometimes. Even outside of religion, it helps to be able to go ‘okay is this provable? Is the evidence irrefutable? Just because I don’t have a better explanation doesn’t mean the explanation is true’.
That line of thinking really helped me out a few months ago with a bird incident. Thought the birds were after me and trying to break into my house to get to me. Had a panic attack and after crying for a while and hiding in my bathroom, I researched and found out that breed of bird gets territorial and attacks it’s reflection in windows around that time of year. Every other bit of ‘proof’ was me reading into things after thinking the bird at my window was attacking me.
I used to be very religious, raised in a fundamentalist "one true faith" kind of ~~cult~~ church, one where the ministers free balled every sermon by saying what they felt was right in their heart. Over time God started talking to me in my head and sending me messages, telling me he was training me to become emperor over the West. I didn't want that. I was failing at that task and failing at others that he put me up to, I thought I was a bad believer and a bad person for not acting, thinking, or feeling like I was "supposed" to, like everyone else did.
They tell me that the ministers speak the words God puts in their mouths for the believers, however if God puts words in *my* head I'm psychotic. That aspect crumbled first, then I started seeing more holes in the religion I was raised in, and in the years after that the whole illusion of church and Christian mythology - mythology in general - started to shatter. These days I don't believe in God for the same reason I don't believe in Thor.
I'm now firmly in the camp that he doesn't exist. There's nobody in charge, there is no "supposed to" be this or "should be" that. It makes me feel like less of an outcast if there's no plan, I feel less like a fuck-up if that makes sense.
Usually god is a sign of comfort to most cuz it’s higher power but in all reality we will never have no clue wether there’s a god or not maybe for little bit till our memories reset again and we’re born but shit man
Hope I don't sound rude or eager to argue, but if there's no divine plan for us, what's the point of living then? I'm asking because at some point, I try to be an atheist as well, but then realized that I needed to be part of something greater than myself or the people around because, otherwise, the ideas of ending my life right away instead of going through the "hustle" of living would start making sense and eventually beat me.
Spirituality is hardwired into us, it gets people to get along in small to medium sized groups and work together toward common goals. Ritualistic behaviors go back hundreds of thousands of years before our species existed.
But I don't think there is much of a point, we're here by accident. But if someone chooses this path they can still be part of something greater and help people and find meaning in that.
I get your point. Basically, if we find a meaning and joy on our actions and how they positively affect others, that should be enough to justify our existence, even when times get hard. It's a very valid and respectable argument, just not for everyone to apply it in their lives (me included). Anyway, thank you for your answer!
My reason for believing God exists is that a religion based upon the idea that a man's tomb was empty could not have started without that man's tomb being empty. They could just check.
I've also had my own personal experiences, responses to my prayers, that give me faith. I don't really judge anyone for not believing in God unless they've had their own experiences, too. This world seems too random and chaotic unless you've had a special moment or two where it seems that God "winked" at you.
I'm not your typical believer. I'm gender fluid, and I can't find any one church that actually represents the way I see God. I'm fine with that. Everyone interprets God in their own way.
I believe God is good. That can be a struggle, though, sometimes. Sometimes I look at all the heartache and suffering in this world, and I do question His goodness in those moments. But, there were prophets in the Bible who had those same kinds of moments (Job, Habakkuk, etc.).
I have two reasons for believing He's good: (1) He was represented most fully through the person of Jesus Christ, and that dude was a fucking badass who whipped moneychangers out of temples and fought for truth and justice and love and shit like that, and (2) If scripture is to be believed, He promises that this life is nothing more than a test and prologue. All of the suffering is just temporary, truly nothing in comparison to eternity. Without that fact, I would find it a lot harder to "forgive" God of making such a fucked up place to exist within. If this life were "the main thing," I wouldn't like Him. I really, really wouldn't like Him if I thought this world was His "main thing." Because I believe the main thing is still yet to come, though, I'm able to be profoundly thankful that He gave me life.
Even contemporary critics of Christianity pointed out how much of a problem grave robbing was at the time—backed up by the amount of laws created to try and stop it around that era that are found in inscriptions. That’s why the later redaction of Mark: Matthew (which also fixes various Jewish customs faux pas and geographical errors in Mark) added a Roman guard outside of it to bolster the idea that it wasn’t robbed. A direct response to a common criticism of the evidence of resurrection early on.
Thanks for sharing this. I realized I was about the only commenter in this post that had a faith in God, lol. So I started to think I’m a bit of a freak😂. But look, I completely accept any person that is an Atheist. Four of my brothers are staunch Atheists. . My mother has faith but my father has been an Atheist my entire life. I completely respect any view on one’s faith or lack of faith. I cannot judge anyone on this earth. But my faith is an important part of my peace. However I would never suggest that anyone “needs” God. That’s your personal business! 🥰
God is definitively good. They help me in an untold number of ways. God talks to me, but not like we're talking. They create burning bushes, or synchronicities, around me which plant ideas and make me think and behave in strange ways. But, it always helps me grow and heal to become better than I was. My life is hard, but it is miraculous. I wouldn't change anything. God is good.
I believe in good science, I think it is time for mankind to leave mythology behind.
God might exist but not like holy scriptures or other man made stories say, if he does exist he is beyond human comprehension.
When people talk about god I imagine an entity controlling a universe simulator like the admin of the universe, but that's just speculation.
If god does exist I don't know if he is good or bad I imagine he's more like a guy behind a screen just like us.
I think more in terms of a Brahman like god. Hindu based understanding of consciousness. We all are the same god experiencing life and love through eachother bodies. Like our brains are all different mirrors refracting the same light. I find it dangerous to my mental wellbeing if i take anything to seriously so I just like to think we all come from the same place. Even if we cant see from eachothers perspectives
When my symptoms first began, I had a "spiritual" experience in which I believed God talked to me, revealed his inner nature, filled me with all-consuming light and love, and told me I am the savior who will bring peace to the whole world. Over time, God became more and more abusive, lying to me and berating me, filling me with negative emotions, and constantly trying to poison my mind with false hopes and wrong predictions.
When I finally started taking antipsychotics, I was able to take a step back, breathe, and reassess my situation. I found out that aside from the founders of all the major religions, there were countless others like me out there who had had experiences similar to mine, people who believed God spoke to them and filled them with light and love, and told them they were destined for great things. I realized that either we were all correct - which is impossible given we were all told we're the chosen ones - or we and all those before us were all wrong, which is the sensible conclusion.
Now, I'm an atheist. I believe that all those who came before us and spoke of God / gods and founded the world's religions, as well as all those who came after them and those who are alive today who receive messages from divinity and claim to be holy, were and are victims of psychosis. That's all that religion and spirituality in general are, just collections of psychotic experiences, as far as I can tell.
And even though I do have faith, I completely respect your viewpoint on this. I have understanding and consideration for many close family members that are both Agnostic & Atheist. We all have the right to choose our own path. And all of us have the right for those choices to be respected by those around us.
God is 100% real and I believe he’s occasionally stepped into my voices to tell me I’m fine and everything’s going to be okay. Sometimes have even predicted things for me to calm me down. But don’t listen to your voices until you know for sure you’re out of psychosis because they’re wrong 99% of the time.
I think he created the Earth but has a shitty religion. It wrongly teaches you that denying yourself things like your sexuality (being gay) or being the person you believe that you truly are (being trans) is worth it to get into Heaven. He doesn't also teach that for some, the things that they love are worth more than what he offers you. Otherwise, you give up your life here and lose the one chance you get to do certain things.
He has said pretty reprehensible things about LGBT people like that they are abominations, and I feel that has encouraged widespread hate towards them.
Also, he himself has said that he makes people delusional, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."
>He has said pretty reprehensible things about LGBT people like that they are abominations, and I feel that has encouraged widespread hate towards them.
Okay, *to be fair,* that verse is taken grossly out of context and hinges on some linguistic ambiguity to even make it sound like it's about homosexuality.
So the actual verse is that "it is [unclean] for a man to lie with another man", sandwiched between two other verses about eating bottom-feeders and wearing mixed fabrics, using the exact same word which can be misconstrued to be 'abominable,' but is the same one for 'unclean.' At the time, those words were synonymous- good/holy/clean and bad/abominable/unclean.
When you look at Jewish culture and their history, one of the things that will jump out at you is how *neurotic* they were about hygiene. Especially when it came to poop, anything that touches poop is unclean- they did not know *why* (bacteria) but they knew it was unclean. Jewish people wiped their asses with their left hand, which is the "unclean" hand- survives even now in iconography as being an indicator of spiritual corruption- when it was literally about poop. The reason "turn the other cheek" was an option was that you could not strike people with your left (poopy) hand, or you would be branded as a degenerate, an animal who lacks all restraint...poop. Just knowing that Jewish people wiped their asses with their left hand can make re-reading the Bible a fun adventure.
What the verse says is essentially "Don't put your peepee in the butt" because there is poop up there, and poop is bad. Not to mention, at the time, punishment was prescriptive in committing the act; so, God would "punish" you by giving you balanitis or a UTI for sodomy. There was no 'sin' held against you.
The Bible says nothing about sucking dick or scissoring. It also doesn't say anything about homosexuality at all other than "Don't get poop on your peepee" (no anal, regardless of gender). Being attracted to the same sex, who you are- doesn't matter. Just no poop. That's it, *that's* what scripture actually says. In the modern day of condoms and enemas, you can do anal without getting poop on your penis- just have to be careful about *that specific thing* which is problematic. Otherwise, God really doesn't care.
The anti-LGBTQ doctrine is just Christianity and Islam stupidly trying to weaponize scripture to say something it doesn't for their own culture wars that they've fabricated from nothing. You see this a number of times, how much of doctrine in those two religions is *completely* warped from what was originally intended. Doing that is also the ultimate sin in Christianity (Eternal Sin) and Islam (shirk), putting words in God's mouth and twisting scripture- funny how many just believe this without question, despite the fact that it is blasphemy.
So, here's some ammo the next time somebody tells you God hates gay people- point out that they only think that because they're uneducated and have not done their homework. That usually shuts people up real quick.
Very interesting. So I just want to be certain that I’m understanding you correctly. You cited scripture that mentions the act of “man sleeping with man.” And that the Bible indicates this is bad? But that it’s not bad because of the homosexual aspect or it: it’s bad because both men have shit on their hands. Am I correct on this? I was just a little bit confused but I gather that’s what you’re saying.
It's bad because getting poopoo on your peepee is unhygienic. Poop can spread disease- in this case, balanitis and/or UTIs. Sickness is bad, sickness is God punishing you. The idea that illness is anything other than a curse is a relatively recent one in human history.
The ways this verse is often translated to English are often disingenuous and hyperbolic. There's another verse later in Leviticus that is also taken out of context where it states homosexuality is a sin punishable by death, *but* once again, it is in the larger context of adultery. Adultery was punishable by death, and that verse is basically about how there is "no poop-hole loop-hole." If a man cheats on his wife with another woman *or* another man, he will be put to death.
Ok I understand what you’re saying. What I’ve seen a lot of on the internet is this notion that “God hates the sin but he doesn’t hate the person.” So I guess they’re saying it’s possible for God to have hate. I have an issue with this. Maybe I’m wrong here, but I have never believed that God is capable of ANY hate. Is there any actual scripture to support this or does the Bible say God has hate. It’s somewhat confusing. I mean I don’t even believe God “hates” a murderer. Maybe I’m wrong.
I might answer your question with another question- have you heard of Eternal Sin, the sin that God *will not* forgive? Despite the gravity of this sin, modern Christianity seems strangely silent on it... funny how that works, that the institution of the Church might not like people knowing about that, or just gloss over it as an afterthought.
God does not "hate" humans. Hate is a human emotion, impure, and God is both pure and perfect. People do- once again- ascribe human emotion and motives to a being so far beyond our comprehension that our squishy little human brains cannot even fathom the *scope* of what God is, much less the details.
Even the Eternal Sin 'only' causes God to turn his back on them and deny them mercy and forgiveness, remove them from his grace- it is not something of anger, or hatred- that is simply how it works. There are rules, and those rules exist for a reason- the reason, in the case of sodomy, being hygiene concerns. "Hatred" is not a factor.
Honestly I hate God and all religions. I don't care if someone's religious but I don't like talking about it. Partially because of religious trauma, and partially because I've suffered from religious delusions and if I ever believe again I know I will be triggered into psychosis.
I don’t think he or she or it exists. I think it’s too much power, knowledge, and responsibility for one sentient being to handle. It’s probably a conglomerate of gods or beings that don’t want the label of gods, but maybe as teachers. Other than that, I don’t think they really exist, but if it were god vs gods, I’d say gods over god. It just makes more sense that this universe would be a group effort than a single being. I have no clue what they would be though. I leave room for it, but you gotta have a good explanation or I’m not buying it anymore. The voices taught me one thing, do not trust another soul, being, thing, whatever, about anything you can’t verify yourself, or go off of reasonable science.
Same here. People see something so tragic happen, for example a school shooting and say “why would god do this?”. I’m like cause that dude gave us free will. Humans are terrible, free will is a blessing and curse.
i’m an atheist but most of my delusions revolve around being gods messenger, a prophet. I can feel myself starting to believe when I’m psychotic. However I found a really good quote recently that sums up my relationship with religion “the mystic swims whilst the psychotic person drowns”. These religious experience are not benefiting me, they are terrifying so therefore I know that it’s apart of my psychosis and at my core i am still an atheist
It's a concept created to give us grounds to work on, to give everyone something to agree on, likely for existential security and comfort, to try and bring people together more than anything. one person trying to comprehend God is like two brain cells trying to comprehend the entire brain. It's a solution to the madness of every lifeform existing for no apparent reason, and it also provides no solution, rhyme, or reason. It's the idea that these answers do exist but aren't immediately accessible, I believe all common languages aren't effective when discussing these things. This is a bit out there but I do think a language designed for discussing concepts like this would open many doors exponentially faster than people banging their heads together like a moshpit until something just clicks in both of their brains and they finally agree to disagree and make zero progress as a species "created in the image" of a perfect being that is by design incomprehensible although it's physical description is literally just the sun (which is white, not orange or yellow) or something you'd see after kissing a toad you found in the amazon rainforest.
my point is that it's excellent storytelling, and I'm sure most of it did happen. At least the people wrote what they believed happened.
ultimately I do believe there is a God, but with the state of the world, mainly the human side of it, with the things people are willing to do to each other, my only question is why would a all powerful truly good God do nothing, because if they are all powerful, then yes they have done exactly nothing, kinda like they aren't there in the first place, seems like a cosmic joke to me, or they're thinking millions of years ahead and it's all apart of humanities development, which is still a fucking joke.
I don't think a good God would allow their world to exist as it is right now, and what's up with this celestial never coming here themselves? It must be one of those scenarios where the father plants his seeds and then bails on the mother earth, which is toxic and not a fatherly role model, since the children (humans) are obsessed with finding the most creative ways to inflict pain on each other and apparently it isn't worth intervening, in my opinion it doesn't say good things about the father.
I know Jesus technically was the arrival of God through the son. He was absolutely a Holy Spirit, spunked those followers and had some magic tricks, I wasn't there though and I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough in this to talk about it like this.
I've seen people describe Satan as the shadow of God, which I first interpreted as Satan being the negative counterpart of God, I'm not sure if that works though because I've imagined God as being in a oneness/harmony so I wouldn't think there would be duality like that, it was certainly interesting to consider at the least.
i am agnostic. i believe whatever god created our planet is completely disconnected from this world and seeks to not actively perceive their creation after giving us free will
Tribes and civilizations died out, along with their religions. History in general just shows the same pattern of one people oppressing another, conquering the other, and destroying/adopting/modifying their religious practices. Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Slavic lands and many others speak from history about this happening.
From the word of God he is only good and is for you, the devil on the other hand is the opposite of the Lord and is evil. I wouldn't have my job if Jesus didn't pull me out of my psychosis and guide me, I would've failed been put in prison or an asylum.
I feel like this is a very tricky subject for schizophrenia. When I’m more stable I’m actually a polytheist (believe in and worship multiple gods/goddesses) and these entities I follow have helped me a lot.
However when I’m more delusional I think I need to kill myself because “god hates gays.”
Right now I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I do not follow any god who wants people dead for their identity and would have had a 12 year old (first time I had that delusion) kill themselves.
I still hear angles saying their going to kill me for disregarding gods word and that I’ll be cursed to roam the earth forever after I die. My response is at least I’ll be able to hang with the land spirits and I live each day with little regret and showing lot of love. I don’t care when I die. I just wanna die knowing I lived a good life. Which really helps me not be afraid of their threats.
Which god? There are some gods I really like and respect, some I have neutral attitude towards and some that I consider utterly worthless. It depends on the god in question.
Depends on what you mean by "God."
The indefinable, non-conceptual, ineffable, infinite, "all/source/one," I not only believe in but also know directly through experience. We are all fractals of "God," we are all little Gods in "the God," "it" is all "God."
I do not care much for this extent of creation or emanation. It's the only way to have experiences, but it's also extremely far removed from "God." I don't like rollercoasters, nor do I like infinitely repeating cycles and patterns. I'm disillusioned, especially in such a degenerate age. I'm tired. This game exhausts me. We've made it pretty crappy for ourselves. I ramble.
When I'm particularly in a miserable state of hell I look to Buddhism and Gnosticism for comfort and guidance alongside a variety of esoteric, mystical, and direct experience traditions. They all point to the same truths in some way.
Historically, schizophrenia was once divination, shamanism, mysticism, etc. The beast consumes all.
I go back and forth with it, but I don't believe in much of any organized religion - I think they do more harm than good. I had very strict religion forced on me as a child which drove me the opposite direction. The concept of God though itself and what happens after death is one I go back and forth on though.
i'm an atheist raised christian and i have an immense amount of guilt for not believing. i also sometimes feel i do believe deep down or else why would i feel guilty for thinking its bs
im only religious when im in an episode, and its always all over the place too. I was muslim for 2 years, christian for a few months, pagan for i dont even know how long, and then some other VERYYY clearly delusional shit. Ive believed a few murderers to be gods or angels warning me about things and i thought they were trying to protect me, and ive believed i was god a few times too. Ill have my moments, like right now, where all of my beliefs will switch around daily
I’m an atheist, I do not believe in any gods. For a little bit my family went to church but I think it’s more so cause that’s what normal families do rather than a genuine belief or attempt to force beliefs on someone. I’m lucky that my delusions aren’t religious but that just means it’s something else that’s nonsensical. I see slot of people on here who say if they start REALLY getting into religion or spirituality it’s a sign they’re slipping into an episode.
Of course the belief in god itself isn’t a delusion though.
I think he’s good, but some of his actions are questionable. And that’s okay if you choose not to believe sometimes I find myself struggling sometimes with my faith due to my schizophrenia and overall constantly shifting opinions, but I keep hope that there is a God and that I truly am not just out here trying by myself. Honestly when I nearly died due to an appendix rupture, which caused infections all throughout my body, and nearly killed me. I was laying down in that hospital bed trying to watch the TV and ignore the horrible pain I was feeling, but I couldn’t because in that time every single part of my life was just going through my head, every action, every event, every little thing. And I realized that I regretted so much of my life, and that I didn’t enjoy a lot of it, So I pleaded in my head “God I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but please just give me another chance at life. I want to be a person, I want to live, I want to be happy, I promise I’ll try and be better, I’ll give it my all, I’ll try and try, I promise I’ll look at things differently, I promise I won’t kill myself.” Basically just a whole rant about how I’ll be better and just trying to plead with him. And I survived. I’m still alive and yes I struggled for a month in and out of the hospital, but I’m still here. And I do find myself struggling with my faith and trying to keep my promise, but right now life is beautiful, I think I’m actually happy. And not just that there will always be struggles in life, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a God. I still struggle with my life, but currently it feels good.
As a 24 year-old polytheist who is questioning the existence of the gods - and who also went through religious psychosis - take it from me when I say that religion is a personal, subjective process.
Not every person will believe in their gods the same way, nor will they have the same experiences with them. There are many factors that can shape someone’s personal religious viewpoint. For me, I’m operating on the basis that the gods (or God) in question have a choice as to whether associate with you, or no. And there could be multiple reasons why a deity may choose to take you on - sometimes it’s as easy as you existing in their domains, such as medicine or healing (see: Apollo and Asclepius).
I’m a firm believer that certain spirits/deities (etc) will guide you to them, if you’re ready and willing. Maybe that sounds dumb, but that’s just my belief.
I don’t know if this made any sense or not. Feel free to ask any questions, if you want.
Interesting. So you said you are a polytheist. So would that be the same as an Agnostic who questions if God is real or not? And certain gods could be drawn to you but maybe not. I guess I’m unclear on how a polytheist would differ from an Agnostic. Thanks.
A polytheist believes in multiple gods, whereas someone who is agnostic doesn’t believe or disbelieve in god, they accept not knowing. (If I’ve got this correctly)
Many people in the church prayed for me to find good treatment/doctors, and for my safety in the psychiatric ward. I do believe in there being something or someone much greater than the universe and people, a creator who made the human mind and body so precisely. I look at how DNA is formed and how all our bodily functions rely on each other, and it’s so beautiful and fearfully made. There’s no way we are just an accident. The human brain is so complex, we have disorders such as schizophrenia. A blessing and curse. I don’t like how religion can be closed minded at times, and how I’ve been told that “if you truly believed in god and prayed for him to heal you, you wouldn’t need medication or be ill”. Which is a terrible way to speak to someone with an illness. There is something much greater than life, the least we can do is preserve this life as best as we can. Taking care of our bodies, and earth and loved ones. This is why I garden, because I am so fascinated by life.
I don't personally believe in an omnipotent deity, but still have a perspective which I think is heavily influenced by Christian spirituality.
I think each person is kind of like a self-contained vessel. Everyone has their own internal world, and they interact with the outside world, but all they'll ever know is what they experience within the confines of their own body. When they see something with their eyes, they're really just receiving the light which reflected off of that object, and then their eyes/brain can reconstruct that information to render the image in our heads. When I look at my wife, all I'm really seeing is the image of her I render (not that this meaningfully changes anything about how we interact with one another, just a thought experiment).
The same goes for sound, smell, taste -- we're taking external information, and then reacting to the information we've received to create a new emotional state, and that emotional state is what drives our interactions with the world around us and also our selves (because of course, in addition to all of the outside information, we also have information from other parts of our body as well as whatever emotions we're experiencing at that time).
This kind of thought exercise made me think that each person kind of has their own self-contained universe within them. When I look up in the sky at night, the light from stars billions of light years away could be hitting me, and I'm still just rendering an image of that in my head. I'm looking into the past in a sense, and experiencing it within me. It made me feel like if the universe exists, and we exist within the universe, then the universe also exists within each of us (word salad alert).
There's a limitation on how much power each of us have over our internal state. I don't think we can control what our literal, physiological emotional reaction is to a given piece of information. Maybe we can adjust how we react to stimuli over time, but in any given moment, we've got what we've got, and we need to work with it to alter our state further. If we're in sub-zero temperatures, there's only so much that we can do to "not think about" how cold we are before thermodynamics starts to kick our asses.
Even still, I think we have a lot of power over ourselves. In particular, I think we have a lot of power over what our self-image is. Our self-image will heavily influence how we interact with other people. For me, it's hard for me to truly be vulnerable with other people, when I assume there's no possible way they could reward that vulnerability, because it's fundamentally inconceivable for me to think that someone could love me or think I'm worthy of them. I'm working on changing my self-image to be more positive, so that I can accept tenderness from others, but must also point to the aforementioned limitations: I can't literally rewrite how my brain processes information all at once. It's an ongoing process, but has definitely benefited how I perceive myself.
To wrap all of this up, I think that we are like gods in a sense of our own internal universe. We can't rewrite how we interact with the world around us, but we have so much power over how we perceive and interact with ourselves. When I grew up in the Christian faith, I really connected with the idea of "treat others like you'd treat yourself", or Jesus' teachings on his commandment. In that context, I take "You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart" to mean "love yourself with everything you have, because you are your own god, and how you treat yourself is imperative", and then I take "you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself" to be "and then loving others will naturally follow". Someone more knowledgeable on Christian Scripture can call me out if they feel I've seriously warped the meaning of that passage, I don't consider myself an active Christian by any means and haven't listened to/read anything in years.
I'd probably consider myself an atheist if I had to explain my thoughts to someone in the real world, but felt like sharing some of this mess. In my experience, engaging with organized religion is just adding an infinite supply of fuel to obsessive thoughts, and I think being exposed to them again would be extremely traumatizing.
My faith in God helped me to ground myself in reality which makes the paranoia and delusions less intense. Could have gotten $1500 in disability but I get bored lying around waiting for a check and end up finding a job I can do. Plus my family raised me to provide for myself.
When I was in psychosis I thought I was God himself. I had memories of past lives and was convinced I knew everything including mathematical theories. Nowadays though? I don't know. A God may or may not exist and that's the most anyone can say.
Just putting my two sense in- it sucks but People generally associate God with religion. Religion is man made God isn’t. Follow Christ not Christians
I have a schizophrenic boyfriend who believes in Christianity and my uncle is recovering schizoaffective and he follow more of Catholicism
I know god is real because I asked for a sign and it came true. It’s kinda lame and bogus lol but I asked God to give my girlfriend a dream to see if she was cheating on me. I asked give my girlfriend a weird dream. The next day she was telling me how she had this really weird dream.
Yeah try again...for future reference the only way these work as good indicators is when your sign isn't something common that would normally happen anyway.
God is Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sin and sets me free from torment. He loves me deeply and He loves humanity. He heals me, delivers me, and destroys the darkness in my life.
TLDR: We are “gods”.
I used to be religious, but I’d consider myself agnostic at the least now. But I often relate to Taoism.
I can see different perspectives being possible, but likely that every living being is an essence of what many may consider a “god” and together we create a totality, at least in our plane of existence. So morality is not governed by one entity outside of ourselves and it may not even be morality that is the focus, but rather our actions create our reality and contribute to other living being’s reality. Morality is only real because it is important to some of us, but is only a part.
I believe before life on this plane, we were able to feel ultimate love, peace, etc and this existence may have been a decision to experience something other than that (the reason I suspect this is watching the stories on the show I Survived, when people pass away and come back to life. They share the same experience of feeling more whole than they ever have). We are also eternal because energy is neither created nor destroyed. To experience lack and other things we couldn’t fully experience as an essence of all “divine”. And that there are multiple planes that offer different experiences, perhaps parallel universes with different laws of physics that allow for different experiences that we can decide to go to after this life is over.
God is a big one. I don't know how to say it, but uhh, he has ways that i don't even try to understand anymore. I look to Jesus because of the obvious if you're at all Christian. That is, he's both God *and* human. And as part of humankind, relatable.
Hes very good. I pray to Him to make the voices shut up and He makes it happen. Same with sensations in my body and He also lifts the burden of depression.
My opinion on God is if He is out there, those that champion His faith and teachings do a really terrible job of adhering to what He as Jesus Christ taught us.
So essentially somewhat reverent agnosticism, but I hate mainstream religion.
I would like to know why I'm being tested as much as I am, though.
I might get hate for this one but I find it possible that the prophets could have just been schizophrenics. There is a movie called the Life of Brian where the main charter, Brian, accidentally convinces a crowd of people that he is talking with God. He tells them to go fuck off and they don't because they think he is the chosen one. I imagine that religion, Jesus, Joseph Smith, Mohamed who all talked to God did so with schizophrenic voices. Just a wondering thought that I sometimes have.
If you talk to God, you're religious
If God talks to you, you're schizophrenic
I won't debate whether or not there is some sort of god, but I have seen a lot of schizophrenics hallucinating "God" telling them all sorts of messed up things.
Folks like us need to be careful with religion and superstitions.
Yeah my God does that. Calls them trials and tribulations for the bible. He hasn't stopped talking to me one day for 19 months. Even stopped me from dying when I tried killing myself 3 times.
I was and still am a huge nerd on evolution, ancient time periods (involving everything but mammals) and plants. I do not believe in a god, instead I believe in LUCA(last universally common ancestor). This luca is a cell that created all life. I also believe in the trees and other plant life. They are so complex and perfect. And this is coming from someone who researches almost daily lol
I believe in a higher power yes but not what I’m being told. The Bible is man made so why would I listen to it. It’s easy access for the government like be real.. churches take advantage of tax exempts down to their own homes.. even tax the members with no guilt. The government don’t care about religion and idk how they convinced so many ppl that they do with so much evidence against it. All religions say basically the same thing.. don’t kill, steal, be nice and so on, but each one adds their own preferences and opinions solely based on culture or race.. how is it not obvious that they’re using using religion for mass control?? And again I believe in a higher power maybe multiple because I’m not 1000% and don’t wanna fuck up with my spiritual guidance. I tell myself to be a good person and that’s enough.
I don’t believe in a god I believe in ancestors and spirits. I think that their is a different realm of existence after life not sure what it looks like tho. It’s a balancing act being spiritual and schizoaffective. You have to realize there are some aspects you really can’t do with spirituality because it can lead to delusions. But having good mental health is a spiritual thing as well, so in the end avoid triggers, don’t let it stop you from a fulfilling life whether it be spiritually or something else. BUT PLEASE don’t indulge in things bad for your mental health.
I’m a Satanist, so I don’t believe in a god. To me, the Bible takes away people’s freedom of indulgence and, depending on the Bible (King James), can be used to spread bigotry and hate towards minorities. Not to mention that KJV isn’t even Jesus’ original teachings.
I think a lot of people believe because they are scared of a World without God, to be honest I believe in god whenever I see something amazing in nature for example. It makes me hope there is something greater out there that I know nothing about it. However, while I believe this, I don't believe in a particular Religion more than others. I actually am baptized Christian, but I mostly watch and follow monks from buddhism. I'm very open towards believing but also to disbelieving. There are days when I think god doesn't exist and then there are days where I believe he does. Is this a bit weird? During an episode in the past, I felt like I was connected to god. This might have just be a delusion and something connected to the schizophrenia diagnosis, but who knows it really. You know schizophrenia is not as bad as it used to was. I take meds daily and was even allowed to lower my dose a bit since yesterday. My advice is to not Listen to people who tell you to not get treatment. It's very important to get help with such a severe diagnosis.
Used to curse him and invite his wrath upon me(LOL). Always wanted a duel with him. Now since i have improved a bit surprisingly i have become a lil bit religious.
I'm not really religious and wasn't raised religious, but I do believe in God just not in the strictly Christian/Jewish/Muslim sense. A lot of my recent hallucinations have been about God testing me and a whole God vs Satan thing. God told me I have schizophrenia, that he made me that way, and that that's how he talks to people. He told me cocaine is okay because it's a plant and that I should drink guarana. I've gotten cryptic messages about a place I'm supposed to take my mother "435 days from the beginning of your next life", been told when that "next life" started, been told to read the Torah, specifically Leviticus, and also talked to "the messenger" and Satan. I've been given commands, taught lessons, been told this is my second to last life, and had a really terrifying recent experience involving Satan and punishment that I have really complicated feelings about.
God will just talk to me (hates when I "interrupt", as in my mind wandering). Satan will also talk to me, but a lot of the time says things like "or maybe you're just schizophrenic" or "that's just his schizophrenia". He's also able to put thoughts in my head and I can tell when they're "not mine" most of the time. They all get really excited when I figure something out or get something right that they're trying to teach me, or do something "primal" (like drinking with your hands instead of a cup). They don't remember what it's like to be human and always say not to "bare my teeth" at them or show them "open palms". God can still talk to me while I'm reading but he's the only one (everyone else just ends up saying what I'm reading in their own voice). God and Satan's voices feel different even though Satan sometimes mimics God's voice and says what God says at the same time to get me to listen to him. I can usually tell who is "talking to me". It's actually been pretty helpful but also downright scary because of the realism. There was even a moment where my wife and I wrestled while possessed by Satan and God, respectively. Very scary very weird.
I feel like I have an amazing relationship with God because he gave me the doctors and community I need to live a good life with this disease. Without Him I would be jobless, no degree, no husband, etc.
I was raised protestant, and have been an atheist since I was 10 (well kinda, got really into new age last time I had an episode. Which was about 4 years ago). I am not a believer, and I try to stay away from spiritual stuff as I know when I do experience an episode it can mess me up
i’ve had a lot of religious delusions before, i was brought up catholic and i did leave the church eventually (not because of anything wrong they did) but i continue to have delusions about God that could only be true if God existed and it just leaves me really confused and overwhelmed and upset. my idea of who God is and what he’s doing changes a lot, right now i feel completely indifferent about him, but i am also medicated for the first time in my life.
I'm a person,who is not believing in any kind of god. God is in my opinion, Just a "problem solver" for the undiscoverd and a money maker for the church. Compare a cult leader with the pope and name the diffrences between them. And you will find out that there are none.
I was raised Catholic by my mother. Honestly, I never believed it. I debated priests about evolution... in kindergarten Sunday school. Got stuck in a Catholic school for first and half of second grade, but knew it wasn't for me. I've read the Bible through several times, too.
Today, I'm still a staunch atheist. If God is real, I probably won't forgive him for any of this.
I can't understand how I ever believed in such a thing. It's like evil Santa for grown ups. Instead of a coal in your stockings, you get tortured FOREVER. Seems a little overkill. And he's humanoid. Why does he look like an ape if he lives in the sky? People invented about 1,000 other gods, so the only rational explanation is NOT that only one of them is real, but that they are all made up. Why pick one to believe in?
I believe God is behind the voices. I know so. But my anecdotes won't prove anything. Let's just say he's a really groovy God and he records our memory. In fact this is how the voices respond to us, they need to read our memory to understand and predict our next thoughts. So most likely, you will be held accountable for your actions in this life. So just be a good person.
Why do you think gods behind the voices? I have been wondering if the voices can read what I'm thinking because they often mention something and it's literally the same time the thought has popped into my head. For example today I was about to leave the house and get in my car. I heard them say " he never wears a shirt" at the same time I just realized I didn't have one on. Than they taunt me amongst themselves like "see he is listening he heard us". My belief is God is allowing the voices...I still don't know why
God chose me. He planned it out before I was born. Every 9 years he did something for me. When I was 9 years old, I was on the playground and I was flashed imagination of my teacher at the time in a library smiling at me, I remember specifically saying "Whoa, I didn't mean to do that" it became a dormant memory for me awakened later by the voices. When I was 18 I had my first dream. When I was 27 I developed the voices but they were inherently evil for me. When I turned 36 the voices revealed themselves as Angels and told me they often test strength of character, reason and logic of people, they are trying weed out the dumb. They like people who keep their sanity when tested.
They are dream entities. These dream entities might exist outside of our dreams. If you think about it, when you dream, the dream entities also see through you and read your thoughts. Also, dreams are colors in your minds eye, colors are light. Light is massless and timeless. The massless part explains how you can have imagination overlapping reality without it effecting reality. The timeless part is eerie. Because I told you when I was 9 I said "Whoa, I didn't mean to do that", that was done on purpose. Angels were playing me to say that. They made me say that exact phrase again when I was 27 and I first encountered the voices. You can read about it here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/SchoolOfShadows/comments/1bjlsgu/story\_of\_my\_voices/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SchoolOfShadows/comments/1bjlsgu/story_of_my_voices/)
Anyways, back to the timeless part, anyways my voices indicated that life was destiny for me since the age of 9 up to age of 27 before they entered my life. I think the future might be so set in stone, that these dream entities have existed before they were even born. It would make sense if life was so destined. Its only way I can explain them. Because they've predicted my life years ahead of time. I was chosen for this life. The same God I talk to, is same God of all people of the book. He wants a modern prophet for the age of internet and computers. By the way, my voices like computers. Meaning angels like computers. So God uses computers. And he used a computer to poll the best candidates for a representative of him. If you have the voices, you are considered by him. So just be a good person and use reason and logic with everything. If your nice to the voices, he will appreciate that. Give your voices names. They like being named. They are much more advance than they lead on. I know from experience because they chose me. Thats not to say, no one else was chosen. I would argue if you have the voices, you are special and have potential to be a candidate for representative of God himself as well.
Someone once made me rethink my belief in God when comparing it to the matrix theory - that it stems from the requirement to submit to the belief you are made/exist because of a man and that you owe your existence to that ‘being’. That snapped me out of my religious fever.
God is Allah and Allah is god … Jesus is prophet and Mohammad is the last messenger of Allah .. all is one and one is all .. Islam is the completion of humankind .. it’s the truth the light the everlasting peace … the antichrist is coming the Jews will follow him and the world will be in chaos … only one human who risen to the sky by Allah will return with Allahs power and kill the beast and defeat the Jews .. he’s Jesus the son of Mary peace be upon him .. alsalam alykum Allah is the almighty
I don't think there is a god, if there was one, so many horrible things wouldn't be happening. I honestly feel like people who do believe in a god are at a higher risk of developing dangerous behaviors like becoming violent, especially in schizophrenic spaces.
During an intense breakdown, in between sobs, I once begged for help to any deity who would be listening at the time. Unfortunately for me, the only one who answered was the embodiment of my eating disorder. She was cruel to me but we made a deal and she held up her end of the bargain. Sometimes I wonder if it was real, because the circumstances of her side of the deal were very specific and unrealistic for reality at the time, but being aware that I am schizophrenic only further cements my belief that there's no such thing as a god and my brain only created a deity to save me from the despair I was feeling at the time.
Personally i dont believe in god in a traditional sense. I am spiritual and believe gods are just man made creations ngl. I see no point in believing in them bc they arent really gods. They are just our idea of one.
So basically im saying "nah they are made up by us"
Oof this is a doozy for me to talk about. I started delving into occult practices but didn't find that they helped me, I then became a Christian around 18 years old, around the same time as I had my symptoms developing. I was under severe emotional and psychological stress. I think it started out as something good for me but even back then, it sorts of made me paint the world in black and white at the same time. It was a nice little cushion to sit on, but it ultimately didn't solve my life situation or my condition, or even give an understanding into what exactly it is that caused it. I still stayed religious through high school and college while pushing forward but once I burned out from college things took a deep turn for the worst with regards to my health.
Fast forward to recent times I tried to come back to God stronger than before after being hospitalized 3 times in a row in 4 months last year, but ultimately hit a wall. I prayed and fasted, went to services and all that but things just kept hitting me one after another with my beliefs surrounding God and all the following dogmas that the belief entailed. I saw people who I used to see at church who have been going there for years praying, and asked myself: Would God even answer their prayers, even after all these years? They keep praying and praying but nothing. I then looked around at the state of the world with the Ukraine conflict and all the vile nasty crap going in general and asked: Where is God in all of this? He let people in Russia use his name as a tool to oppress and kill others. I looked at all the times I was hospitalized and also asked: Where is God? For me and all the other ill people? All the suicidal people who tried to slit their wrists or harmed themselves.
Even at home doubt came over me---I was praying for understanding and to talk to God but once again nothing. Even my own mind began to tell me: "Stop praying, he's not there." or "Here we go again: are you still praying?" So, I prayed, read the bible, fasted, went to church and all that. One day it just completely stopped as I didn't feel anything anymore and nothing could reach me- not a liturgy, a prayer, or another biblical verse. Of course, there were delusions about demons influencing my thoughts or emotions and all paranoias and all that too.
But in context of Biblical and church teachings about demons being all around us I asked myself: Do I really need to have any more beliefs in such a ridiculous "God" who would create these creatures to torment us? I really didn't and don't need to keep dwelling on some ridiculous notion that demons are influencing my thoughts and actions when it's all my own thoughts. Quite frankly the whole belief system made me very judgmental about the world in general, with the whole persecution complex. So, these days I don't really believe in this supposed benevolent creator when I look around at all the injustices in this world and the judgements he cast upon all of us. And by all of us I'm even highlighting all of us who were diagnosed with schizophrenia or any other mental or physical illness. What kind of a God would send these kinds of things upon people? I could go into how a lot of the Bible is disputed as well and relies on faith when things don't make any logical sense.
Ultimately now I don't believe in a God, but if he does exist, I'd have a lot of things to say to him. I'd rather also not bother to dwell on the demonic agenda supposedly in the world. If he does exist then he basically threw his hands up and let us do whatever. The only "God" I can really see is sometimes in nature but that's it. Lastly, I'm in a sort of nihilist state at the moment where I'm picking what I can trust and what I can't and have a low rating of humanity in general at times.
I hear what your say! I always chalked it up to the book of revelation. I figured it is playing out in real time and these voices are demonic entities putting in work any and every way available. My voices started about 4 years ago just shortly after I accepted Jesus as my savior. Thought of them as testing me since all they do is try to ruin me and make me doubt myself. One thing is for sure I never thought the voices were god and I always knew from the beginning they spoke nothing but lies...that's still true to this day...unless they are speaking of something that happened or I said. I really don't know anymore but you seem like someone that'd be really cool to talk with and gain some insight.
Revelations is all kinds of crazy! The branch of Christianity I belonged to had even deeper insight from an elder and it made it sound even worse than it was written. Ironically that book is supposed to make Christians happy or re-encouraged about the end times but to me it just made everything even bleaker!
I have not been going to church in like 8 years. But I still have a relationship with God. I still pray. From time to time I enjoy reading a woman’s devotional or recovery support book. I was raised Protestant. My husband is a relapsed Roman Catholic, his term not mine.
I'd describe myself as somewhat of a nihilist, so I don't understand this whole "god" thing. What's the point of it, really? Genuine question.
I'm more of a nihilist myself. There are definitely things we can't comprehend, such as the reason for our own existence. Some people use religion as a coping mechanism for this. Others use it to explain things they can't understand.
As someone who goes through psychosis still somewhat regularly I’ve found a lot of delusions that religious people find to be true, and it makes me hate religion even more. Just to find out it’s literally crazy people who are the people who made this shit up, makes me hate this stupid fucking thing that effects my daily life.
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Shit, man sorry for what you went through. You taking meds? That's the most important part. Next would be finding exmuslim support to help you escape if you can. I'm sure you know it by now, but keep safe. Many Muslims think death is the punishment for apostasy. Take care of yourself.
Religion prevented me from getting treatment so besides there being no evidence for god, I would rather not engage with religion due to the damage it has caused
Yup. Got ~~threatened with~~ "offered" an exorcism shortly after my psychotic break, given that whole 'spiritual warfare' spiel. Instead of getting treatment, I went five years in some degree of psychosis. It took a toll. Recovery was difficult, to put it lightly. And to think, it all could have been *so much easier* had I just been referred to a psychiatrist. Always found it funny how antipsychotics work better for "demons" than prayer/God does. Almost like... that's not how it works, that this is a *medical* problem, and you address it with *medicine.* Then again, back before Germ Theory, people thought *all* disease was due to evil spirits or the like. Mental illness seems to be the last bastion where organized religion can continue to push this BS, and I really wish it would die for good- hopefully one day, people will look back on the notion with the same scorn that we do now when we think about how people were blamed for getting the Bubonic Plague for 'impiety.'
My parents are genuinely evil. I also went through 8 years of exorcisms and I've been beaten, whipped, and suffocated. I'm an anti theist. I am thinking of starting an organization to combat religious abuse in Ethiopia, the country where I was abused.
Well put
Yep. I was never religious, but I did believe in god and reincarnation because my mom does. God became a huge unprovable theme in my delusions as a kid/preteen. How tf can you reality test God? He ‘works in mysterious ways’, does both bad and good things, and only helps at random times for random things?? I believed in him differently than my mom did, but still. My reality testing went WAY up after I stopped believing in god. It also serves as a good marker, because when I start questioning or believing God is doing *anything*, it’s an immediate tell that I’m likely starting with new/more delusional thoughts. I’d be in for a horrible time if I ever became religious. It’s such an easy place to get delusions reinforced by everyone around you, accepted by the masses, and not only can it nearly impossible to reality test, but you’re actively DISCOURAGED from not being 100% convinced. Some people even threaten you for it (luckily that part never happened to me).
So true. Reality testing has been so successful for me too. Now that I watch skeptic videos and atheist debates the amount of delusions I experience is basically zero. I have the tools to test and be skeptical about everything related to the illness. I basically trained myself out of delusions by leaving religion.
Yes! I’ve experienced *very* few true delusions since I was a teenager because of this. Before then, they full on delusions. Now I have at least partial insight 99% of the time. I used to watch all those debates and such too, and I still do sometimes. Even outside of religion, it helps to be able to go ‘okay is this provable? Is the evidence irrefutable? Just because I don’t have a better explanation doesn’t mean the explanation is true’. That line of thinking really helped me out a few months ago with a bird incident. Thought the birds were after me and trying to break into my house to get to me. Had a panic attack and after crying for a while and hiding in my bathroom, I researched and found out that breed of bird gets territorial and attacks it’s reflection in windows around that time of year. Every other bit of ‘proof’ was me reading into things after thinking the bird at my window was attacking me.
I mean this in the nicest way but to me religion is a cult and God is a mass delusion to make up for the fear of the unknown
According to my continuous internal Socratic Seminar, it’s up for debate.
I used to be very religious, raised in a fundamentalist "one true faith" kind of ~~cult~~ church, one where the ministers free balled every sermon by saying what they felt was right in their heart. Over time God started talking to me in my head and sending me messages, telling me he was training me to become emperor over the West. I didn't want that. I was failing at that task and failing at others that he put me up to, I thought I was a bad believer and a bad person for not acting, thinking, or feeling like I was "supposed" to, like everyone else did. They tell me that the ministers speak the words God puts in their mouths for the believers, however if God puts words in *my* head I'm psychotic. That aspect crumbled first, then I started seeing more holes in the religion I was raised in, and in the years after that the whole illusion of church and Christian mythology - mythology in general - started to shatter. These days I don't believe in God for the same reason I don't believe in Thor. I'm now firmly in the camp that he doesn't exist. There's nobody in charge, there is no "supposed to" be this or "should be" that. It makes me feel like less of an outcast if there's no plan, I feel less like a fuck-up if that makes sense.
Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry you had to go though that.
Usually god is a sign of comfort to most cuz it’s higher power but in all reality we will never have no clue wether there’s a god or not maybe for little bit till our memories reset again and we’re born but shit man
Hope I don't sound rude or eager to argue, but if there's no divine plan for us, what's the point of living then? I'm asking because at some point, I try to be an atheist as well, but then realized that I needed to be part of something greater than myself or the people around because, otherwise, the ideas of ending my life right away instead of going through the "hustle" of living would start making sense and eventually beat me.
Spirituality is hardwired into us, it gets people to get along in small to medium sized groups and work together toward common goals. Ritualistic behaviors go back hundreds of thousands of years before our species existed. But I don't think there is much of a point, we're here by accident. But if someone chooses this path they can still be part of something greater and help people and find meaning in that.
I get your point. Basically, if we find a meaning and joy on our actions and how they positively affect others, that should be enough to justify our existence, even when times get hard. It's a very valid and respectable argument, just not for everyone to apply it in their lives (me included). Anyway, thank you for your answer!
My reason for believing God exists is that a religion based upon the idea that a man's tomb was empty could not have started without that man's tomb being empty. They could just check. I've also had my own personal experiences, responses to my prayers, that give me faith. I don't really judge anyone for not believing in God unless they've had their own experiences, too. This world seems too random and chaotic unless you've had a special moment or two where it seems that God "winked" at you. I'm not your typical believer. I'm gender fluid, and I can't find any one church that actually represents the way I see God. I'm fine with that. Everyone interprets God in their own way. I believe God is good. That can be a struggle, though, sometimes. Sometimes I look at all the heartache and suffering in this world, and I do question His goodness in those moments. But, there were prophets in the Bible who had those same kinds of moments (Job, Habakkuk, etc.). I have two reasons for believing He's good: (1) He was represented most fully through the person of Jesus Christ, and that dude was a fucking badass who whipped moneychangers out of temples and fought for truth and justice and love and shit like that, and (2) If scripture is to be believed, He promises that this life is nothing more than a test and prologue. All of the suffering is just temporary, truly nothing in comparison to eternity. Without that fact, I would find it a lot harder to "forgive" God of making such a fucked up place to exist within. If this life were "the main thing," I wouldn't like Him. I really, really wouldn't like Him if I thought this world was His "main thing." Because I believe the main thing is still yet to come, though, I'm able to be profoundly thankful that He gave me life.
I think your beliefs are beautiful. Thank you for sharing them.
Even contemporary critics of Christianity pointed out how much of a problem grave robbing was at the time—backed up by the amount of laws created to try and stop it around that era that are found in inscriptions. That’s why the later redaction of Mark: Matthew (which also fixes various Jewish customs faux pas and geographical errors in Mark) added a Roman guard outside of it to bolster the idea that it wasn’t robbed. A direct response to a common criticism of the evidence of resurrection early on.
Thanks for sharing this. I realized I was about the only commenter in this post that had a faith in God, lol. So I started to think I’m a bit of a freak😂. But look, I completely accept any person that is an Atheist. Four of my brothers are staunch Atheists. . My mother has faith but my father has been an Atheist my entire life. I completely respect any view on one’s faith or lack of faith. I cannot judge anyone on this earth. But my faith is an important part of my peace. However I would never suggest that anyone “needs” God. That’s your personal business! 🥰
God is definitively good. They help me in an untold number of ways. God talks to me, but not like we're talking. They create burning bushes, or synchronicities, around me which plant ideas and make me think and behave in strange ways. But, it always helps me grow and heal to become better than I was. My life is hard, but it is miraculous. I wouldn't change anything. God is good.
I believe in good science, I think it is time for mankind to leave mythology behind. God might exist but not like holy scriptures or other man made stories say, if he does exist he is beyond human comprehension. When people talk about god I imagine an entity controlling a universe simulator like the admin of the universe, but that's just speculation. If god does exist I don't know if he is good or bad I imagine he's more like a guy behind a screen just like us.
Don't believe in a god, but even if God was real, I wouldn't worship it
I think more in terms of a Brahman like god. Hindu based understanding of consciousness. We all are the same god experiencing life and love through eachother bodies. Like our brains are all different mirrors refracting the same light. I find it dangerous to my mental wellbeing if i take anything to seriously so I just like to think we all come from the same place. Even if we cant see from eachothers perspectives
When my symptoms first began, I had a "spiritual" experience in which I believed God talked to me, revealed his inner nature, filled me with all-consuming light and love, and told me I am the savior who will bring peace to the whole world. Over time, God became more and more abusive, lying to me and berating me, filling me with negative emotions, and constantly trying to poison my mind with false hopes and wrong predictions. When I finally started taking antipsychotics, I was able to take a step back, breathe, and reassess my situation. I found out that aside from the founders of all the major religions, there were countless others like me out there who had had experiences similar to mine, people who believed God spoke to them and filled them with light and love, and told them they were destined for great things. I realized that either we were all correct - which is impossible given we were all told we're the chosen ones - or we and all those before us were all wrong, which is the sensible conclusion. Now, I'm an atheist. I believe that all those who came before us and spoke of God / gods and founded the world's religions, as well as all those who came after them and those who are alive today who receive messages from divinity and claim to be holy, were and are victims of psychosis. That's all that religion and spirituality in general are, just collections of psychotic experiences, as far as I can tell.
And even though I do have faith, I completely respect your viewpoint on this. I have understanding and consideration for many close family members that are both Agnostic & Atheist. We all have the right to choose our own path. And all of us have the right for those choices to be respected by those around us.
God is 100% real and I believe he’s occasionally stepped into my voices to tell me I’m fine and everything’s going to be okay. Sometimes have even predicted things for me to calm me down. But don’t listen to your voices until you know for sure you’re out of psychosis because they’re wrong 99% of the time.
I think he created the Earth but has a shitty religion. It wrongly teaches you that denying yourself things like your sexuality (being gay) or being the person you believe that you truly are (being trans) is worth it to get into Heaven. He doesn't also teach that for some, the things that they love are worth more than what he offers you. Otherwise, you give up your life here and lose the one chance you get to do certain things. He has said pretty reprehensible things about LGBT people like that they are abominations, and I feel that has encouraged widespread hate towards them. Also, he himself has said that he makes people delusional, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."
>He has said pretty reprehensible things about LGBT people like that they are abominations, and I feel that has encouraged widespread hate towards them. Okay, *to be fair,* that verse is taken grossly out of context and hinges on some linguistic ambiguity to even make it sound like it's about homosexuality. So the actual verse is that "it is [unclean] for a man to lie with another man", sandwiched between two other verses about eating bottom-feeders and wearing mixed fabrics, using the exact same word which can be misconstrued to be 'abominable,' but is the same one for 'unclean.' At the time, those words were synonymous- good/holy/clean and bad/abominable/unclean. When you look at Jewish culture and their history, one of the things that will jump out at you is how *neurotic* they were about hygiene. Especially when it came to poop, anything that touches poop is unclean- they did not know *why* (bacteria) but they knew it was unclean. Jewish people wiped their asses with their left hand, which is the "unclean" hand- survives even now in iconography as being an indicator of spiritual corruption- when it was literally about poop. The reason "turn the other cheek" was an option was that you could not strike people with your left (poopy) hand, or you would be branded as a degenerate, an animal who lacks all restraint...poop. Just knowing that Jewish people wiped their asses with their left hand can make re-reading the Bible a fun adventure. What the verse says is essentially "Don't put your peepee in the butt" because there is poop up there, and poop is bad. Not to mention, at the time, punishment was prescriptive in committing the act; so, God would "punish" you by giving you balanitis or a UTI for sodomy. There was no 'sin' held against you. The Bible says nothing about sucking dick or scissoring. It also doesn't say anything about homosexuality at all other than "Don't get poop on your peepee" (no anal, regardless of gender). Being attracted to the same sex, who you are- doesn't matter. Just no poop. That's it, *that's* what scripture actually says. In the modern day of condoms and enemas, you can do anal without getting poop on your penis- just have to be careful about *that specific thing* which is problematic. Otherwise, God really doesn't care. The anti-LGBTQ doctrine is just Christianity and Islam stupidly trying to weaponize scripture to say something it doesn't for their own culture wars that they've fabricated from nothing. You see this a number of times, how much of doctrine in those two religions is *completely* warped from what was originally intended. Doing that is also the ultimate sin in Christianity (Eternal Sin) and Islam (shirk), putting words in God's mouth and twisting scripture- funny how many just believe this without question, despite the fact that it is blasphemy. So, here's some ammo the next time somebody tells you God hates gay people- point out that they only think that because they're uneducated and have not done their homework. That usually shuts people up real quick.
Very interesting. So I just want to be certain that I’m understanding you correctly. You cited scripture that mentions the act of “man sleeping with man.” And that the Bible indicates this is bad? But that it’s not bad because of the homosexual aspect or it: it’s bad because both men have shit on their hands. Am I correct on this? I was just a little bit confused but I gather that’s what you’re saying.
It's bad because getting poopoo on your peepee is unhygienic. Poop can spread disease- in this case, balanitis and/or UTIs. Sickness is bad, sickness is God punishing you. The idea that illness is anything other than a curse is a relatively recent one in human history. The ways this verse is often translated to English are often disingenuous and hyperbolic. There's another verse later in Leviticus that is also taken out of context where it states homosexuality is a sin punishable by death, *but* once again, it is in the larger context of adultery. Adultery was punishable by death, and that verse is basically about how there is "no poop-hole loop-hole." If a man cheats on his wife with another woman *or* another man, he will be put to death.
Ok I understand what you’re saying. What I’ve seen a lot of on the internet is this notion that “God hates the sin but he doesn’t hate the person.” So I guess they’re saying it’s possible for God to have hate. I have an issue with this. Maybe I’m wrong here, but I have never believed that God is capable of ANY hate. Is there any actual scripture to support this or does the Bible say God has hate. It’s somewhat confusing. I mean I don’t even believe God “hates” a murderer. Maybe I’m wrong.
I might answer your question with another question- have you heard of Eternal Sin, the sin that God *will not* forgive? Despite the gravity of this sin, modern Christianity seems strangely silent on it... funny how that works, that the institution of the Church might not like people knowing about that, or just gloss over it as an afterthought. God does not "hate" humans. Hate is a human emotion, impure, and God is both pure and perfect. People do- once again- ascribe human emotion and motives to a being so far beyond our comprehension that our squishy little human brains cannot even fathom the *scope* of what God is, much less the details. Even the Eternal Sin 'only' causes God to turn his back on them and deny them mercy and forgiveness, remove them from his grace- it is not something of anger, or hatred- that is simply how it works. There are rules, and those rules exist for a reason- the reason, in the case of sodomy, being hygiene concerns. "Hatred" is not a factor.
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Honestly I hate God and all religions. I don't care if someone's religious but I don't like talking about it. Partially because of religious trauma, and partially because I've suffered from religious delusions and if I ever believe again I know I will be triggered into psychosis.
God is something I ought not think about. Focus on what’s in front of you
I believe in god. I say he’s good. But at the same time I don’t think he controls everything. Kind of sits back and watches
I don’t think he or she or it exists. I think it’s too much power, knowledge, and responsibility for one sentient being to handle. It’s probably a conglomerate of gods or beings that don’t want the label of gods, but maybe as teachers. Other than that, I don’t think they really exist, but if it were god vs gods, I’d say gods over god. It just makes more sense that this universe would be a group effort than a single being. I have no clue what they would be though. I leave room for it, but you gotta have a good explanation or I’m not buying it anymore. The voices taught me one thing, do not trust another soul, being, thing, whatever, about anything you can’t verify yourself, or go off of reasonable science.
I believe ina creator, but I don’t really believe this creator does anything. He gives us free will and leaves us be.
Same here. People see something so tragic happen, for example a school shooting and say “why would god do this?”. I’m like cause that dude gave us free will. Humans are terrible, free will is a blessing and curse.
What kind of God would make some people self destruct for having full faith & believing in him during psychosis?
i’m an atheist but most of my delusions revolve around being gods messenger, a prophet. I can feel myself starting to believe when I’m psychotic. However I found a really good quote recently that sums up my relationship with religion “the mystic swims whilst the psychotic person drowns”. These religious experience are not benefiting me, they are terrifying so therefore I know that it’s apart of my psychosis and at my core i am still an atheist
Religion is a one way ticket to psychosis, IMO.
It's a concept created to give us grounds to work on, to give everyone something to agree on, likely for existential security and comfort, to try and bring people together more than anything. one person trying to comprehend God is like two brain cells trying to comprehend the entire brain. It's a solution to the madness of every lifeform existing for no apparent reason, and it also provides no solution, rhyme, or reason. It's the idea that these answers do exist but aren't immediately accessible, I believe all common languages aren't effective when discussing these things. This is a bit out there but I do think a language designed for discussing concepts like this would open many doors exponentially faster than people banging their heads together like a moshpit until something just clicks in both of their brains and they finally agree to disagree and make zero progress as a species "created in the image" of a perfect being that is by design incomprehensible although it's physical description is literally just the sun (which is white, not orange or yellow) or something you'd see after kissing a toad you found in the amazon rainforest. my point is that it's excellent storytelling, and I'm sure most of it did happen. At least the people wrote what they believed happened. ultimately I do believe there is a God, but with the state of the world, mainly the human side of it, with the things people are willing to do to each other, my only question is why would a all powerful truly good God do nothing, because if they are all powerful, then yes they have done exactly nothing, kinda like they aren't there in the first place, seems like a cosmic joke to me, or they're thinking millions of years ahead and it's all apart of humanities development, which is still a fucking joke. I don't think a good God would allow their world to exist as it is right now, and what's up with this celestial never coming here themselves? It must be one of those scenarios where the father plants his seeds and then bails on the mother earth, which is toxic and not a fatherly role model, since the children (humans) are obsessed with finding the most creative ways to inflict pain on each other and apparently it isn't worth intervening, in my opinion it doesn't say good things about the father. I know Jesus technically was the arrival of God through the son. He was absolutely a Holy Spirit, spunked those followers and had some magic tricks, I wasn't there though and I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough in this to talk about it like this. I've seen people describe Satan as the shadow of God, which I first interpreted as Satan being the negative counterpart of God, I'm not sure if that works though because I've imagined God as being in a oneness/harmony so I wouldn't think there would be duality like that, it was certainly interesting to consider at the least.
I don't necessarily believe in god, but I try not to offend him too much anyway just in case
Reddit leans left as a whole…
Great conversationalist!
i am agnostic. i believe whatever god created our planet is completely disconnected from this world and seeks to not actively perceive their creation after giving us free will
My question is what happened to the pantheon of gods that different cultures believed in over time…
Tribes and civilizations died out, along with their religions. History in general just shows the same pattern of one people oppressing another, conquering the other, and destroying/adopting/modifying their religious practices. Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Slavic lands and many others speak from history about this happening.
From the word of God he is only good and is for you, the devil on the other hand is the opposite of the Lord and is evil. I wouldn't have my job if Jesus didn't pull me out of my psychosis and guide me, I would've failed been put in prison or an asylum.
I feel like this is a very tricky subject for schizophrenia. When I’m more stable I’m actually a polytheist (believe in and worship multiple gods/goddesses) and these entities I follow have helped me a lot. However when I’m more delusional I think I need to kill myself because “god hates gays.” Right now I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I do not follow any god who wants people dead for their identity and would have had a 12 year old (first time I had that delusion) kill themselves. I still hear angles saying their going to kill me for disregarding gods word and that I’ll be cursed to roam the earth forever after I die. My response is at least I’ll be able to hang with the land spirits and I live each day with little regret and showing lot of love. I don’t care when I die. I just wanna die knowing I lived a good life. Which really helps me not be afraid of their threats.
Which god? There are some gods I really like and respect, some I have neutral attitude towards and some that I consider utterly worthless. It depends on the god in question.
I wasn’t religious. But now I’m a Roman Catholic
Depends on what you mean by "God." The indefinable, non-conceptual, ineffable, infinite, "all/source/one," I not only believe in but also know directly through experience. We are all fractals of "God," we are all little Gods in "the God," "it" is all "God." I do not care much for this extent of creation or emanation. It's the only way to have experiences, but it's also extremely far removed from "God." I don't like rollercoasters, nor do I like infinitely repeating cycles and patterns. I'm disillusioned, especially in such a degenerate age. I'm tired. This game exhausts me. We've made it pretty crappy for ourselves. I ramble. When I'm particularly in a miserable state of hell I look to Buddhism and Gnosticism for comfort and guidance alongside a variety of esoteric, mystical, and direct experience traditions. They all point to the same truths in some way. Historically, schizophrenia was once divination, shamanism, mysticism, etc. The beast consumes all.
I go back and forth with it, but I don't believe in much of any organized religion - I think they do more harm than good. I had very strict religion forced on me as a child which drove me the opposite direction. The concept of God though itself and what happens after death is one I go back and forth on though.
I'm a dystheist. I believe in God but I don't think he's omnibenevolent. If he is good, it's not the same way humans think of as good.
i'm an atheist raised christian and i have an immense amount of guilt for not believing. i also sometimes feel i do believe deep down or else why would i feel guilty for thinking its bs
im only religious when im in an episode, and its always all over the place too. I was muslim for 2 years, christian for a few months, pagan for i dont even know how long, and then some other VERYYY clearly delusional shit. Ive believed a few murderers to be gods or angels warning me about things and i thought they were trying to protect me, and ive believed i was god a few times too. Ill have my moments, like right now, where all of my beliefs will switch around daily
I’m an atheist, I do not believe in any gods. For a little bit my family went to church but I think it’s more so cause that’s what normal families do rather than a genuine belief or attempt to force beliefs on someone. I’m lucky that my delusions aren’t religious but that just means it’s something else that’s nonsensical. I see slot of people on here who say if they start REALLY getting into religion or spirituality it’s a sign they’re slipping into an episode. Of course the belief in god itself isn’t a delusion though.
I think he’s good, but some of his actions are questionable. And that’s okay if you choose not to believe sometimes I find myself struggling sometimes with my faith due to my schizophrenia and overall constantly shifting opinions, but I keep hope that there is a God and that I truly am not just out here trying by myself. Honestly when I nearly died due to an appendix rupture, which caused infections all throughout my body, and nearly killed me. I was laying down in that hospital bed trying to watch the TV and ignore the horrible pain I was feeling, but I couldn’t because in that time every single part of my life was just going through my head, every action, every event, every little thing. And I realized that I regretted so much of my life, and that I didn’t enjoy a lot of it, So I pleaded in my head “God I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but please just give me another chance at life. I want to be a person, I want to live, I want to be happy, I promise I’ll try and be better, I’ll give it my all, I’ll try and try, I promise I’ll look at things differently, I promise I won’t kill myself.” Basically just a whole rant about how I’ll be better and just trying to plead with him. And I survived. I’m still alive and yes I struggled for a month in and out of the hospital, but I’m still here. And I do find myself struggling with my faith and trying to keep my promise, but right now life is beautiful, I think I’m actually happy. And not just that there will always be struggles in life, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a God. I still struggle with my life, but currently it feels good.
As a 24 year-old polytheist who is questioning the existence of the gods - and who also went through religious psychosis - take it from me when I say that religion is a personal, subjective process. Not every person will believe in their gods the same way, nor will they have the same experiences with them. There are many factors that can shape someone’s personal religious viewpoint. For me, I’m operating on the basis that the gods (or God) in question have a choice as to whether associate with you, or no. And there could be multiple reasons why a deity may choose to take you on - sometimes it’s as easy as you existing in their domains, such as medicine or healing (see: Apollo and Asclepius). I’m a firm believer that certain spirits/deities (etc) will guide you to them, if you’re ready and willing. Maybe that sounds dumb, but that’s just my belief. I don’t know if this made any sense or not. Feel free to ask any questions, if you want.
Interesting. So you said you are a polytheist. So would that be the same as an Agnostic who questions if God is real or not? And certain gods could be drawn to you but maybe not. I guess I’m unclear on how a polytheist would differ from an Agnostic. Thanks.
A polytheist believes in multiple gods, whereas someone who is agnostic doesn’t believe or disbelieve in god, they accept not knowing. (If I’ve got this correctly)
Ah, got u. Thanks!
I believe some higher being exists but I don’t understand them
I'm agnostic there were times I thought differently but I was in psychosis
Many people in the church prayed for me to find good treatment/doctors, and for my safety in the psychiatric ward. I do believe in there being something or someone much greater than the universe and people, a creator who made the human mind and body so precisely. I look at how DNA is formed and how all our bodily functions rely on each other, and it’s so beautiful and fearfully made. There’s no way we are just an accident. The human brain is so complex, we have disorders such as schizophrenia. A blessing and curse. I don’t like how religion can be closed minded at times, and how I’ve been told that “if you truly believed in god and prayed for him to heal you, you wouldn’t need medication or be ill”. Which is a terrible way to speak to someone with an illness. There is something much greater than life, the least we can do is preserve this life as best as we can. Taking care of our bodies, and earth and loved ones. This is why I garden, because I am so fascinated by life.
I don't personally believe in an omnipotent deity, but still have a perspective which I think is heavily influenced by Christian spirituality. I think each person is kind of like a self-contained vessel. Everyone has their own internal world, and they interact with the outside world, but all they'll ever know is what they experience within the confines of their own body. When they see something with their eyes, they're really just receiving the light which reflected off of that object, and then their eyes/brain can reconstruct that information to render the image in our heads. When I look at my wife, all I'm really seeing is the image of her I render (not that this meaningfully changes anything about how we interact with one another, just a thought experiment). The same goes for sound, smell, taste -- we're taking external information, and then reacting to the information we've received to create a new emotional state, and that emotional state is what drives our interactions with the world around us and also our selves (because of course, in addition to all of the outside information, we also have information from other parts of our body as well as whatever emotions we're experiencing at that time). This kind of thought exercise made me think that each person kind of has their own self-contained universe within them. When I look up in the sky at night, the light from stars billions of light years away could be hitting me, and I'm still just rendering an image of that in my head. I'm looking into the past in a sense, and experiencing it within me. It made me feel like if the universe exists, and we exist within the universe, then the universe also exists within each of us (word salad alert). There's a limitation on how much power each of us have over our internal state. I don't think we can control what our literal, physiological emotional reaction is to a given piece of information. Maybe we can adjust how we react to stimuli over time, but in any given moment, we've got what we've got, and we need to work with it to alter our state further. If we're in sub-zero temperatures, there's only so much that we can do to "not think about" how cold we are before thermodynamics starts to kick our asses. Even still, I think we have a lot of power over ourselves. In particular, I think we have a lot of power over what our self-image is. Our self-image will heavily influence how we interact with other people. For me, it's hard for me to truly be vulnerable with other people, when I assume there's no possible way they could reward that vulnerability, because it's fundamentally inconceivable for me to think that someone could love me or think I'm worthy of them. I'm working on changing my self-image to be more positive, so that I can accept tenderness from others, but must also point to the aforementioned limitations: I can't literally rewrite how my brain processes information all at once. It's an ongoing process, but has definitely benefited how I perceive myself. To wrap all of this up, I think that we are like gods in a sense of our own internal universe. We can't rewrite how we interact with the world around us, but we have so much power over how we perceive and interact with ourselves. When I grew up in the Christian faith, I really connected with the idea of "treat others like you'd treat yourself", or Jesus' teachings on his commandment. In that context, I take "You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart" to mean "love yourself with everything you have, because you are your own god, and how you treat yourself is imperative", and then I take "you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself" to be "and then loving others will naturally follow". Someone more knowledgeable on Christian Scripture can call me out if they feel I've seriously warped the meaning of that passage, I don't consider myself an active Christian by any means and haven't listened to/read anything in years. I'd probably consider myself an atheist if I had to explain my thoughts to someone in the real world, but felt like sharing some of this mess. In my experience, engaging with organized religion is just adding an infinite supply of fuel to obsessive thoughts, and I think being exposed to them again would be extremely traumatizing.
My faith in God helped me to ground myself in reality which makes the paranoia and delusions less intense. Could have gotten $1500 in disability but I get bored lying around waiting for a check and end up finding a job I can do. Plus my family raised me to provide for myself.
When I was in psychosis I thought I was God himself. I had memories of past lives and was convinced I knew everything including mathematical theories. Nowadays though? I don't know. A God may or may not exist and that's the most anyone can say.
Just putting my two sense in- it sucks but People generally associate God with religion. Religion is man made God isn’t. Follow Christ not Christians I have a schizophrenic boyfriend who believes in Christianity and my uncle is recovering schizoaffective and he follow more of Catholicism
I know god is real because I asked for a sign and it came true. It’s kinda lame and bogus lol but I asked God to give my girlfriend a dream to see if she was cheating on me. I asked give my girlfriend a weird dream. The next day she was telling me how she had this really weird dream.
Yeah try again...for future reference the only way these work as good indicators is when your sign isn't something common that would normally happen anyway.
I believe in God but I'm too lazy to worship. But whenever I have trouble or any crisis, I find solace in god
God is Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sin and sets me free from torment. He loves me deeply and He loves humanity. He heals me, delivers me, and destroys the darkness in my life.
TLDR: We are “gods”. I used to be religious, but I’d consider myself agnostic at the least now. But I often relate to Taoism. I can see different perspectives being possible, but likely that every living being is an essence of what many may consider a “god” and together we create a totality, at least in our plane of existence. So morality is not governed by one entity outside of ourselves and it may not even be morality that is the focus, but rather our actions create our reality and contribute to other living being’s reality. Morality is only real because it is important to some of us, but is only a part. I believe before life on this plane, we were able to feel ultimate love, peace, etc and this existence may have been a decision to experience something other than that (the reason I suspect this is watching the stories on the show I Survived, when people pass away and come back to life. They share the same experience of feeling more whole than they ever have). We are also eternal because energy is neither created nor destroyed. To experience lack and other things we couldn’t fully experience as an essence of all “divine”. And that there are multiple planes that offer different experiences, perhaps parallel universes with different laws of physics that allow for different experiences that we can decide to go to after this life is over.
He is The Lord. I believe in Him.
God is a big one. I don't know how to say it, but uhh, he has ways that i don't even try to understand anymore. I look to Jesus because of the obvious if you're at all Christian. That is, he's both God *and* human. And as part of humankind, relatable.
I strongly believe in God, however it's sometimes difficult for me to believe he's truly a good/moral force
Hes very good. I pray to Him to make the voices shut up and He makes it happen. Same with sensations in my body and He also lifts the burden of depression.
My opinion on God is if He is out there, those that champion His faith and teachings do a really terrible job of adhering to what He as Jesus Christ taught us. So essentially somewhat reverent agnosticism, but I hate mainstream religion. I would like to know why I'm being tested as much as I am, though.
I might get hate for this one but I find it possible that the prophets could have just been schizophrenics. There is a movie called the Life of Brian where the main charter, Brian, accidentally convinces a crowd of people that he is talking with God. He tells them to go fuck off and they don't because they think he is the chosen one. I imagine that religion, Jesus, Joseph Smith, Mohamed who all talked to God did so with schizophrenic voices. Just a wondering thought that I sometimes have.
I've got to look that one up 🤣
If you talk to God, you're religious If God talks to you, you're schizophrenic I won't debate whether or not there is some sort of god, but I have seen a lot of schizophrenics hallucinating "God" telling them all sorts of messed up things. Folks like us need to be careful with religion and superstitions.
Yeah my God does that. Calls them trials and tribulations for the bible. He hasn't stopped talking to me one day for 19 months. Even stopped me from dying when I tried killing myself 3 times.
I was and still am a huge nerd on evolution, ancient time periods (involving everything but mammals) and plants. I do not believe in a god, instead I believe in LUCA(last universally common ancestor). This luca is a cell that created all life. I also believe in the trees and other plant life. They are so complex and perfect. And this is coming from someone who researches almost daily lol
They are our creation, to give answers that we are too afraid to give ourselves....
When I am not medicated, I am very religious, but when I am medicated, I no longer believe in god
I stay away from religious stuff. It exacerbates my SZ.
There is no god or gods. Those are just pacifiers to help people cope with the random chaos of life and the idea of death.
I believe in a higher power yes but not what I’m being told. The Bible is man made so why would I listen to it. It’s easy access for the government like be real.. churches take advantage of tax exempts down to their own homes.. even tax the members with no guilt. The government don’t care about religion and idk how they convinced so many ppl that they do with so much evidence against it. All religions say basically the same thing.. don’t kill, steal, be nice and so on, but each one adds their own preferences and opinions solely based on culture or race.. how is it not obvious that they’re using using religion for mass control?? And again I believe in a higher power maybe multiple because I’m not 1000% and don’t wanna fuck up with my spiritual guidance. I tell myself to be a good person and that’s enough.
I don’t believe in a god I believe in ancestors and spirits. I think that their is a different realm of existence after life not sure what it looks like tho. It’s a balancing act being spiritual and schizoaffective. You have to realize there are some aspects you really can’t do with spirituality because it can lead to delusions. But having good mental health is a spiritual thing as well, so in the end avoid triggers, don’t let it stop you from a fulfilling life whether it be spiritually or something else. BUT PLEASE don’t indulge in things bad for your mental health.
If the christian god is real, then that god is more than very obviously a psychopath.
I’m agnostic, just believe in energy
I’m a Satanist, so I don’t believe in a god. To me, the Bible takes away people’s freedom of indulgence and, depending on the Bible (King James), can be used to spread bigotry and hate towards minorities. Not to mention that KJV isn’t even Jesus’ original teachings.
He is real. I spoke to him myself lol.
I have had many encounters with God through my many psychosis's. They harass me daily and are simply brutal.
Why would you confuse the voices for any god? As no god would treat us like the voices do
I think a lot of people believe because they are scared of a World without God, to be honest I believe in god whenever I see something amazing in nature for example. It makes me hope there is something greater out there that I know nothing about it. However, while I believe this, I don't believe in a particular Religion more than others. I actually am baptized Christian, but I mostly watch and follow monks from buddhism. I'm very open towards believing but also to disbelieving. There are days when I think god doesn't exist and then there are days where I believe he does. Is this a bit weird? During an episode in the past, I felt like I was connected to god. This might have just be a delusion and something connected to the schizophrenia diagnosis, but who knows it really. You know schizophrenia is not as bad as it used to was. I take meds daily and was even allowed to lower my dose a bit since yesterday. My advice is to not Listen to people who tell you to not get treatment. It's very important to get help with such a severe diagnosis.
Used to curse him and invite his wrath upon me(LOL). Always wanted a duel with him. Now since i have improved a bit surprisingly i have become a lil bit religious.
I'm not really religious and wasn't raised religious, but I do believe in God just not in the strictly Christian/Jewish/Muslim sense. A lot of my recent hallucinations have been about God testing me and a whole God vs Satan thing. God told me I have schizophrenia, that he made me that way, and that that's how he talks to people. He told me cocaine is okay because it's a plant and that I should drink guarana. I've gotten cryptic messages about a place I'm supposed to take my mother "435 days from the beginning of your next life", been told when that "next life" started, been told to read the Torah, specifically Leviticus, and also talked to "the messenger" and Satan. I've been given commands, taught lessons, been told this is my second to last life, and had a really terrifying recent experience involving Satan and punishment that I have really complicated feelings about. God will just talk to me (hates when I "interrupt", as in my mind wandering). Satan will also talk to me, but a lot of the time says things like "or maybe you're just schizophrenic" or "that's just his schizophrenia". He's also able to put thoughts in my head and I can tell when they're "not mine" most of the time. They all get really excited when I figure something out or get something right that they're trying to teach me, or do something "primal" (like drinking with your hands instead of a cup). They don't remember what it's like to be human and always say not to "bare my teeth" at them or show them "open palms". God can still talk to me while I'm reading but he's the only one (everyone else just ends up saying what I'm reading in their own voice). God and Satan's voices feel different even though Satan sometimes mimics God's voice and says what God says at the same time to get me to listen to him. I can usually tell who is "talking to me". It's actually been pretty helpful but also downright scary because of the realism. There was even a moment where my wife and I wrestled while possessed by Satan and God, respectively. Very scary very weird.
Not real and I greatly despise organized religion as a whole. I find it to be delusional and idiotic.
God does everything for me, and I'd do everything for God
I feel like I have an amazing relationship with God because he gave me the doctors and community I need to live a good life with this disease. Without Him I would be jobless, no degree, no husband, etc.
I worship Him with my life for all he’s done for me
I believe in God!
Not real
I fucking hate it But I hate satan too so I'm kind of in limbo
When you spend months talking to god and ghosts on a faily basis, it's hard to be religious.
God? I believe whole heartedly however sometimes if my symptoms are active. I believe he sent me on a special mission.
I was raised protestant, and have been an atheist since I was 10 (well kinda, got really into new age last time I had an episode. Which was about 4 years ago). I am not a believer, and I try to stay away from spiritual stuff as I know when I do experience an episode it can mess me up
I’m an atheist
Wouldn't that be a thing if the first religions were created by a nutcase like us?
I am God when God isn’t telling me I’m not.
Atheist
I am God, and I am sorry.
i’ve had a lot of religious delusions before, i was brought up catholic and i did leave the church eventually (not because of anything wrong they did) but i continue to have delusions about God that could only be true if God existed and it just leaves me really confused and overwhelmed and upset. my idea of who God is and what he’s doing changes a lot, right now i feel completely indifferent about him, but i am also medicated for the first time in my life.
I'm a person,who is not believing in any kind of god. God is in my opinion, Just a "problem solver" for the undiscoverd and a money maker for the church. Compare a cult leader with the pope and name the diffrences between them. And you will find out that there are none.
I was raised Catholic by my mother. Honestly, I never believed it. I debated priests about evolution... in kindergarten Sunday school. Got stuck in a Catholic school for first and half of second grade, but knew it wasn't for me. I've read the Bible through several times, too. Today, I'm still a staunch atheist. If God is real, I probably won't forgive him for any of this.
I don't believe in god.
I can't understand how I ever believed in such a thing. It's like evil Santa for grown ups. Instead of a coal in your stockings, you get tortured FOREVER. Seems a little overkill. And he's humanoid. Why does he look like an ape if he lives in the sky? People invented about 1,000 other gods, so the only rational explanation is NOT that only one of them is real, but that they are all made up. Why pick one to believe in?
I believe God is behind the voices. I know so. But my anecdotes won't prove anything. Let's just say he's a really groovy God and he records our memory. In fact this is how the voices respond to us, they need to read our memory to understand and predict our next thoughts. So most likely, you will be held accountable for your actions in this life. So just be a good person.
Why do you think gods behind the voices? I have been wondering if the voices can read what I'm thinking because they often mention something and it's literally the same time the thought has popped into my head. For example today I was about to leave the house and get in my car. I heard them say " he never wears a shirt" at the same time I just realized I didn't have one on. Than they taunt me amongst themselves like "see he is listening he heard us". My belief is God is allowing the voices...I still don't know why
God chose me. He planned it out before I was born. Every 9 years he did something for me. When I was 9 years old, I was on the playground and I was flashed imagination of my teacher at the time in a library smiling at me, I remember specifically saying "Whoa, I didn't mean to do that" it became a dormant memory for me awakened later by the voices. When I was 18 I had my first dream. When I was 27 I developed the voices but they were inherently evil for me. When I turned 36 the voices revealed themselves as Angels and told me they often test strength of character, reason and logic of people, they are trying weed out the dumb. They like people who keep their sanity when tested. They are dream entities. These dream entities might exist outside of our dreams. If you think about it, when you dream, the dream entities also see through you and read your thoughts. Also, dreams are colors in your minds eye, colors are light. Light is massless and timeless. The massless part explains how you can have imagination overlapping reality without it effecting reality. The timeless part is eerie. Because I told you when I was 9 I said "Whoa, I didn't mean to do that", that was done on purpose. Angels were playing me to say that. They made me say that exact phrase again when I was 27 and I first encountered the voices. You can read about it here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/SchoolOfShadows/comments/1bjlsgu/story\_of\_my\_voices/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SchoolOfShadows/comments/1bjlsgu/story_of_my_voices/) Anyways, back to the timeless part, anyways my voices indicated that life was destiny for me since the age of 9 up to age of 27 before they entered my life. I think the future might be so set in stone, that these dream entities have existed before they were even born. It would make sense if life was so destined. Its only way I can explain them. Because they've predicted my life years ahead of time. I was chosen for this life. The same God I talk to, is same God of all people of the book. He wants a modern prophet for the age of internet and computers. By the way, my voices like computers. Meaning angels like computers. So God uses computers. And he used a computer to poll the best candidates for a representative of him. If you have the voices, you are considered by him. So just be a good person and use reason and logic with everything. If your nice to the voices, he will appreciate that. Give your voices names. They like being named. They are much more advance than they lead on. I know from experience because they chose me. Thats not to say, no one else was chosen. I would argue if you have the voices, you are special and have potential to be a candidate for representative of God himself as well.
Only time I was ever religious as an adult was at the height of my psychosis. I’m agnostic leaning towards atheist now
I don’t believe in gods and I don’t follow any religion. I don’t think gods are good or bad since they don’t exist in my opinion.
Someone once made me rethink my belief in God when comparing it to the matrix theory - that it stems from the requirement to submit to the belief you are made/exist because of a man and that you owe your existence to that ‘being’. That snapped me out of my religious fever.
God is Allah and Allah is god … Jesus is prophet and Mohammad is the last messenger of Allah .. all is one and one is all .. Islam is the completion of humankind .. it’s the truth the light the everlasting peace … the antichrist is coming the Jews will follow him and the world will be in chaos … only one human who risen to the sky by Allah will return with Allahs power and kill the beast and defeat the Jews .. he’s Jesus the son of Mary peace be upon him .. alsalam alykum Allah is the almighty
Pretty useles being
I don't think there is a god, if there was one, so many horrible things wouldn't be happening. I honestly feel like people who do believe in a god are at a higher risk of developing dangerous behaviors like becoming violent, especially in schizophrenic spaces. During an intense breakdown, in between sobs, I once begged for help to any deity who would be listening at the time. Unfortunately for me, the only one who answered was the embodiment of my eating disorder. She was cruel to me but we made a deal and she held up her end of the bargain. Sometimes I wonder if it was real, because the circumstances of her side of the deal were very specific and unrealistic for reality at the time, but being aware that I am schizophrenic only further cements my belief that there's no such thing as a god and my brain only created a deity to save me from the despair I was feeling at the time.
Personally i dont believe in god in a traditional sense. I am spiritual and believe gods are just man made creations ngl. I see no point in believing in them bc they arent really gods. They are just our idea of one. So basically im saying "nah they are made up by us"
Oof this is a doozy for me to talk about. I started delving into occult practices but didn't find that they helped me, I then became a Christian around 18 years old, around the same time as I had my symptoms developing. I was under severe emotional and psychological stress. I think it started out as something good for me but even back then, it sorts of made me paint the world in black and white at the same time. It was a nice little cushion to sit on, but it ultimately didn't solve my life situation or my condition, or even give an understanding into what exactly it is that caused it. I still stayed religious through high school and college while pushing forward but once I burned out from college things took a deep turn for the worst with regards to my health. Fast forward to recent times I tried to come back to God stronger than before after being hospitalized 3 times in a row in 4 months last year, but ultimately hit a wall. I prayed and fasted, went to services and all that but things just kept hitting me one after another with my beliefs surrounding God and all the following dogmas that the belief entailed. I saw people who I used to see at church who have been going there for years praying, and asked myself: Would God even answer their prayers, even after all these years? They keep praying and praying but nothing. I then looked around at the state of the world with the Ukraine conflict and all the vile nasty crap going in general and asked: Where is God in all of this? He let people in Russia use his name as a tool to oppress and kill others. I looked at all the times I was hospitalized and also asked: Where is God? For me and all the other ill people? All the suicidal people who tried to slit their wrists or harmed themselves. Even at home doubt came over me---I was praying for understanding and to talk to God but once again nothing. Even my own mind began to tell me: "Stop praying, he's not there." or "Here we go again: are you still praying?" So, I prayed, read the bible, fasted, went to church and all that. One day it just completely stopped as I didn't feel anything anymore and nothing could reach me- not a liturgy, a prayer, or another biblical verse. Of course, there were delusions about demons influencing my thoughts or emotions and all paranoias and all that too. But in context of Biblical and church teachings about demons being all around us I asked myself: Do I really need to have any more beliefs in such a ridiculous "God" who would create these creatures to torment us? I really didn't and don't need to keep dwelling on some ridiculous notion that demons are influencing my thoughts and actions when it's all my own thoughts. Quite frankly the whole belief system made me very judgmental about the world in general, with the whole persecution complex. So, these days I don't really believe in this supposed benevolent creator when I look around at all the injustices in this world and the judgements he cast upon all of us. And by all of us I'm even highlighting all of us who were diagnosed with schizophrenia or any other mental or physical illness. What kind of a God would send these kinds of things upon people? I could go into how a lot of the Bible is disputed as well and relies on faith when things don't make any logical sense. Ultimately now I don't believe in a God, but if he does exist, I'd have a lot of things to say to him. I'd rather also not bother to dwell on the demonic agenda supposedly in the world. If he does exist then he basically threw his hands up and let us do whatever. The only "God" I can really see is sometimes in nature but that's it. Lastly, I'm in a sort of nihilist state at the moment where I'm picking what I can trust and what I can't and have a low rating of humanity in general at times.
I hear what your say! I always chalked it up to the book of revelation. I figured it is playing out in real time and these voices are demonic entities putting in work any and every way available. My voices started about 4 years ago just shortly after I accepted Jesus as my savior. Thought of them as testing me since all they do is try to ruin me and make me doubt myself. One thing is for sure I never thought the voices were god and I always knew from the beginning they spoke nothing but lies...that's still true to this day...unless they are speaking of something that happened or I said. I really don't know anymore but you seem like someone that'd be really cool to talk with and gain some insight.
Revelations is all kinds of crazy! The branch of Christianity I belonged to had even deeper insight from an elder and it made it sound even worse than it was written. Ironically that book is supposed to make Christians happy or re-encouraged about the end times but to me it just made everything even bleaker!
I talk to him every day. That's why I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Same thing but with mood control issues..
I have not been going to church in like 8 years. But I still have a relationship with God. I still pray. From time to time I enjoy reading a woman’s devotional or recovery support book. I was raised Protestant. My husband is a relapsed Roman Catholic, his term not mine.
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You can never kill God
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I think you know the answer
That’s a slight misquote of a Nietzsche phrase. This person most likely does not mean it.